Debate Rages in China as Death Sentence Upheld for Young Tycoon

As a former tycoon once listed as China’s sixth-richest woman shuffles down China’s death row, she’s given new life to public debate over the quality of mercy in the world’s most populous nation.

Sina Weibo

An image of former tycoon Wu Ying, whose death sentence on fraud charges was recently upheld, posted to the Twitter-like microblogging service Sina Weibo. Ms. Wu’s case has stirred up China’s microbloggers, many of whom are angry that she faces death while corrupt officials are often allowed to lounge in jail.

A high court this week upheld a capital sentence for 31-year-old Wu Ying after hearing the prosecution’s case that the boss of Bense Holding Group bilked investors out of 380 million yuan ($60.3 million) in an apparent Ponzi-like scheme that lasted nearly two years.

But the severity of the punishment, and speculation swirling around the country’s skeptical blogosphere that her fate was the result of having implicated government officials in the course of the investigation, has sharpened a public outcry over the application of the death penalty in a country where the courts are controlled by the ruling party.

“Wu Ying was the product of the people’s financial environment,” Bono Zhou wrote on the Twitter-like Sina Weibo microblogging site, where Ms. Wu’s case has been a trending topic. “To push a systemic and social problem onto the person of an unprivileged grassroots woman – the inequity is obvious, and the death penalty is not just a shame for the judiciary but also the shame of all citizens.”

According to state media reports, Ms. Wu’s was found guilty of “fraudulent fundraising” after she collected as much as 770 million yuan with promises of 80% annual interest-rate returns. Prosecutors said she told her investors she would use the money to start companies, extend loans or improve cashflow at existing businesses but instead used it roll over debt and fund personal purchases of real estate and cars. Ms. Wu lawyers say she used the funds to invest in trading companies, hotels and property developments, and that her investors were friends and not the general public.

Public sympathy for Ms. Wu seems to stem in part from her compelling life story. She hails from eastern China’s Zhejiang province, a bastion of small and medium businesses known for its entrepreneurship — and for a robust underground lending market. A farmer’s daughter, she started with a single nail salon in 1997 and went on to build a conglomerate with interests in hotels and construction.

The timing of her punishment may also be a factor. Ms. Wu faces the harshest possible sentence at a time when China is reforming its capital punishments. China accelerated those reforms last year, eliminating capital punishment for 13 types of “economic and non-violent” crimes, almost a fifth of capital offenses.

But the bulk of the public outrage over her case appears to revolve around what some perceive as a double standard in the Chinese legal system that punishes private citizens while treating corrupt government officials with kid gloves.

“Wu Ying is guilty but it doesn’t call for death,” wrote Sina Weibo user Song Zude. “The harm wrought on society by (officials) is worse than Wu Ying’s. They should be equal in the eyes of the law!”

At the heart of the issue is a feature of China’s death penalty system that allows for sentences to be reduced to life in prison if convicts go two years without committing another crime. Nearly three quarters of officials condemned to die get their sentences reduced, compared to just 20 to 30 percent of ordinary prisoners, China Daily reported last year.

“Wu Ying is just a scapegoat,” said a weibo user writing under the handle Xifeng Kaiyue.

China does not release official execution statistics, which it considers a state secret, but according to estimates from the Duihua Foundation, a human rights group, the number of executions in the country has halved to 4,000 last year from 8,000 in 2005, the legacy of statute reforms launched in 2007. Though many Chinese support the existence of the death penalty, Duihua argues, secrecy surrounding the numbers is another reason the public tends to distrust its application.

With Ms. Wu’s case likely to be appealed the Supreme People’s Court, China’s leaders can expect debate over the justice of her punishment to continue.

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